Onion Review of Enterprise?

[RookieBatman]

I remember, way back when Enterprise first came out, the Onion had a review of it. The one thing that I remember being really funny was, they said it was basically just the same Star Trek stuff you've already seen before, but now with ball caps! Does anybody remember this or have a link to an online version? (I already tried Googling.)

 

[MacLeod]

A search of The Onion site gives this not sure if it's what you are after

http://www.theonion.com/graphic/the-new-star-trek-series-7708

 

[Karzak]

I remember that article! For years I remembered the "Restores white male to rightful place in captain's chair" in the back of my head. Youch. Burn!

 

[RookieBatman]

A search of The Onion site gives this not sure if it's what you are after

http://www.theonion.com/graphic/the-new-star-trek-series-7708

Yeah, I think that was it!

 

[Karzak]

I remember that article! For years I remembered the "Restores white male to rightful place in captain's chair" in the back of my head. Youch. Burn!

Sadly accurate about Star Trek fan films, as well.

 

[t_smitts]

I remember that article! For years I remembered the "Restores white male to rightful place in captain's chair" in the back of my head. Youch. Burn!

Sadly accurate about Star Trek fan films, as well.

I suppose you can blame that on the fact that fan films are usually based around existing characters (usually the 1701 crew, or in the case of Axanar, Captain Garth) who tended to be pretty white and male, especially in the 60's. I haven't really heard of any fan films based on DS9 or Voyager, though there's certainly nothing stopping someone from gathering the funds to do so (or a new crew, for that matter).

That said, yeah, Starfleet, as depicted in by a 21st century production was seriously lacking in diversity (and this is coming from a white guy). I've mentioned this before, but I think, from "Broken Bow" up to "First Flight", ANY officer with the rank of lieutenant or higher was both white and male (and Malcolm was the only one who clearly wasn't American).

The Abrams films had a problem with this as well. I remember seeing a scathing Youtube vlogger that ripped the '09 film for this sea of all-white cadets at Kirk's hearing (and no, they didn't get credit for having Tyler Perry in the film).

 

[The Wormhole]

That said, yeah, Starfleet, as depicted in by a 21st century production was seriously lacking in diversity (and this is coming from a white guy). I've mentioned this before, but I think, from "Broken Bow" up to "First Flight", ANY officer with the rank of lieutenant or higher was both white and male (and Malcolm was the only one who clearly wasn't American).

I don't remember, what exactly about First Flight broke this pattern? At the very least, we do have a female lieutenant mentioned in Shuttlepod One, Trip's second in engineering apparently. Who might have actually have been seen in Vanishing Point, the episode does feature a female redshirt with Lieutenant's pips speaking engineering jargon.

The Abrams films had a problem with this as well. I remember seeing a scathing Youtube vlogger that ripped the '09 film for this sea of all-white cadets at Kirk's hearing (and no, they didn't get credit for having Tyler Perry in the film).

Aside from Uhura and Sulu, I think the only non-white characters with a speaking part in Trek XI are Captain Robau and Tyler Perry. In STID I'm not sure there are any other than the Harewood family. And no, I'm not including aliens, just humans here. In fact, STID actually cast a white guy as an ethnic character.

 

[horatio83]

Identity politics nonsense. A piece of Trek could feature ample of non WASPs as senior officers and be a reactionary piece of crap. A piece of Trek could feature ample of white males and be a progressive gem.

 

[t_smitts]

That said, yeah, Starfleet, as depicted in by a 21st century production was seriously lacking in diversity (and this is coming from a white guy). I've mentioned this before, but I think, from "Broken Bow" up to "First Flight", ANY officer with the rank of lieutenant or higher was both white and male (and Malcolm was the only one who clearly wasn't American).

I don't remember, what exactly about First Flight broke this pattern? At the very least, we do have a female lieutenant mentioned in Shuttlepod One, Trip's second in engineering apparently. Who might have actually have been seen in Vanishing Point, the episode does feature a female redshirt with Lieutenant's pips speaking engineering jargon.

The Abrams films had a problem with this as well. I remember seeing a scathing Youtube vlogger that ripped the '09 film for this sea of all-white cadets at Kirk's hearing (and no, they didn't get credit for having Tyler Perry in the film).

Aside from Uhura and Sulu, I think the only non-white characters with a speaking part in Trek XI are Captain Robau and Tyler Perry. In STID I'm not sure there are any other than the Harewood family. And no, I'm not including aliens, just humans here. In fact, STID actually cast a white guy as an ethnic character.

Sorry, I should've rephrased that as up to, and including, First Flight.

I think they were more critical about that one scene in '09, since that supposedly represented the bulk of Starfleet Academy's student body.

As for STID, my understanding was they did NOT want a brown-skinned actor played a character named Khan Noonien Singh, who's basically a terrorist in the film. I'm not sure if that justifies it, but there you go.

 

[The Wormhole]

Sorry, I should've rephrased that as up to, and including, First Flight.

Okay, but who came after First Flight that you're referring to? Like I said, there was already a female Lieutenant from prior to that, but otherwise unless you include the alternate timeline in Twilight, I don't recall anyone Lieutenant or above who wasn't a white male until season 4, where T'Pol was commissioned as a Starfleet Commander, Captain Hernandez was introduced and we saw a female commander from Starfleet Security in the Klingon forehead story.

As for STID, my understanding was they did NOT want a brown-skinned actor played a character named Khan Noonien Singh, who's basically a terrorist in the film. I'm not sure if that justifies it, but there you go.

Not exactly, actors who were either Indian or Latino were considered and even auditioned, but in the end they went with Cumberbatch on a combination of him being a rising star and the belief they could fool fandom with the plot twist if they cast someone of a different ethnicity of the character or Montalban's.

 

[t_smitts]

Sorry, I should've rephrased that as up to, and including, First Flight.

Okay, but who came after First Flight that you're referring to? Like I said, there was already a female Lieutenant from prior to that, but otherwise unless you include the alternate timeline in Twilight, I don't recall anyone Lieutenant or above who wasn't a white male until season 4, where T'Pol was commissioned as a Starfleet Commander, Captain Hernandez was introduced and we saw a female commander from Starfleet Security in the Klingon forehead story.

As for STID, my understanding was they did NOT want a brown-skinned actor played a character named Khan Noonien Singh, who's basically a terrorist in the film. I'm not sure if that justifies it, but there you go.

Not exactly, actors who were either Indian or Latino were considered and even auditioned, but in the end they went with Cumberbatch on a combination of him being a rising star and the belief they could fool fandom with the plot twist if they cast someone of a different ethnicity of the character or Montalban's.

Don't forget Captain Ramierez of the Intrepid in "The Expanse".

 

[The Wormhole]

Sorry, I should've rephrased that as up to, and including, First Flight.

Okay, but who came after First Flight that you're referring to? Like I said, there was already a female Lieutenant from prior to that, but otherwise unless you include the alternate timeline in Twilight, I don't recall anyone Lieutenant or above who wasn't a white male until season 4, where T'Pol was commissioned as a Starfleet Commander, Captain Hernandez was introduced and we saw a female commander from Starfleet Security in the Klingon forehead story.

As for STID, my understanding was they did NOT want a brown-skinned actor played a character named Khan Noonien Singh, who's basically a terrorist in the film. I'm not sure if that justifies it, but there you go.

Not exactly, actors who were either Indian or Latino were considered and even auditioned, but in the end they went with Cumberbatch on a combination of him being a rising star and the belief they could fool fandom with the plot twist if they cast someone of a different ethnicity of the character or Montalban's.

Don't forget Captain Ramierez of the Intrepid in "The Expanse".

Hmm, I suppose. The role was small enough I did forget him, but yeah, I concede the point.